Tehran says its seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz remains available, but Iran and the United States disagree over whether maritime access or the nuclear programme must be addressed first.
18 October 2026 · 2 min readThe Bank of Canada expects to raise its inflation forecast sharply as oil and refined-fuel prices remain high. Policymakers must decide whether the shock will fade or spread through wages and domestic prices.
18 October 2026 · 2 min readJapan will provide up to $21bn for two GlobalFoundries plants in New York under a joint initiative. The structure extends chip policy beyond subsidies towards shared capital, capacity and strategic control.
18 October 2026 · 2 min readEthiopia’s federal government has installed a caretaker administration in Tigray with a six-month mandate to restore services, disarm fighters and prepare elections. The timetable is clear; the test is whether political trust can be rebuilt alongside security.
18 October 2026 · 2 min readAnup Bagchi will become HDFC Bank’s first externally appointed chief executive as quarterly profit growth remains modest. The handover tests whether fresh leadership can improve performance without disrupting a vast banking franchise.
18 October 2026 · 2 min readBeijing’s proposal to control exports of 12 solar-manufacturing technologies shows that the clean-energy race is no longer only about panels and factories. The decisive asset is increasingly the know-how behind them.
18 October 2026 · 2 min readOpposition parties retained control of the Czech upper house while ANO failed to win a contested seat, preserving a constitutional counterweight without threatening the government’s immediate survival.
17 October 2026 · 2 min readThe world economy has absorbed repeated shocks, but the IMFC says wars, expensive energy, rising yields and rapid technological change are concentrating risk in countries with the least room to respond.
17 October 2026 · 2 min readAn extreme internal scenario presented by Anthropic imagines US output approaching $44tn by 2030. Its value lies less in the headline number than in exposing how unprepared policy is for rapid technological diffusion.
17 October 2026 · 2 min readChristine Lagarde’s assessment that higher long-term yields will damp inflation highlights how markets can do part of a central bank’s work—while creating new risks for borrowers and governments.
17 October 2026 · 3 min read